In a memo to senior Pentagon leaders, Mr. Hegseth said that the department had been reviewing the operation that led to the deaths of 13 U.S. troops and 170 civilians at Kabul International Airport. He suggested that the effort led by Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s assistant to the secretary of defense for public affairs, would be more comprehensive than previous reviews. Mr. Hegseth’s selection of his chief spokesman to conduct such an inquiry was highly unusual and appeared to reflect a skepticism that uniformed military leaders would hold each other accountable. Mr. Parnell served in Afghanistan for 16 months in 2006 and 2007 as a platoon leader in Paktika Province, near Pakistan’s border, where he was wounded in combat.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered a "comprehensive review" on Tuesday of the United States' chaotic military withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, an evacuation operation in which 13 U.S. service members and 150 Afghans were killed at Kabul's airport in an Islamic State bombing. It was unclear how Hegseth's review would differ from the many previous reviews that were carried out - including by the U.S. military, State Department and even President Donald Trump's fellow Republicans in the House of Representatives. Hegseth could be accused of politicizing the matter. The Biden administration, which oversaw the 2021 pullout, mostly blamed the resulting chaos on a lack of planning and reductions in troops by the first Trump administration following a 2020 deal with the Taliban to withdraw U.S. forces.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered a special review panel to convene and detail the military's "disastrous and embarrassing withdrawal from Afghanistan" in 2021. Hegseth promised a full accounting of the withdrawal ordered by former President Joe Biden. It was marred by a suicide bombing at the Kabul International Airport Abbey Gate, which killed 13 U.S. service members and 170 civilians. The decades-long U.S. military presence in Afghanistan, going back to 2001, likely cost the U.S. more than $775 billion. The value of usable military equipment left behind from the Biden administration's pullout decision has never been accurately calculated.